REDEMPTION

I stand on the stone bridge over one of the ancient pools of some long forgotten spa tucked into a valley beneath enormous mountains in South America. The pools, no longer empty, ring with the squeals of children playing and the chatter of those watching over them. The water is not the clear blue of the chlorinated pools of the YMCA but a dark mineral green. A green so old that in its opacity one could find reflected the primordial swamps, lakes, and, backwaters of the ancient world. Water that is infinitely deep and unfathomable. It is suddenly apparent that these waters are teaming with life. All the ancient creatures of the sea have taken refuge in these small baths in the midst of the mountains. Larger that any whale, a huge fish with a pointed nose swims by its radial fin just sweeping out of the water. Below and around it the water moves with mysterious dark life. It becomes clear that all the world's ancient oceans flow through this confined space without conflicting with the laws of physics, space or time. We do not belong in this water. I rush to help a woman and her two children up the ramp and onto the cool stone ledge. The bathers do not seem to be aware of the life teaming these waters, yet most are clearing out of their own accord. The fish keep swimming.